The Incredibles 2 Begins Right After the First Movie

Brad Bird’s The Incredibles 2, takes place immediately after the events of Bird’s original 2004 film. Although Walt Disney Animation hasn’t traditionally been in the habit of releasing theatrical sequels — which is something they plan on changing in the future with movies like Frozen 2 and Wreck-It Ralph 2 — Pixar hasn’t shied away from producing sequels to their biggest properties, such as Cars and Toy Story. However, the one sequel that people have been clamoring for will finally release next summer: The Incredibles 2.

After briefly flirting with live-action movies — namely Tomorrowland and Mission: Impossible, and passing up on Star Wars — Bird has decided to return to animation and continue the story of the Parr family: Bob, aka Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson), and Helen, aka Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), as well as their super-powered children, Violet (Sarah Vowell), Dashiell Robert (Spencer Fox), and Jack-Jack. The Incredibles ended on a time jump, with the Parr family donning their superhero costumes once again to take on the new villain, the Underminer — and it looks like that’s where the sequel will continue.

Not much has been known about Bird’s The Incredibles 2, other than the fact that it hits theaters in 2018 and that frequent Bird-collaborator, Michael Giacchino, has returned to compose the sequel’s soundtrack. Pixar is expected to reveal official details regarding the upcoming sequel at the D23 Expo this weekend, possibly including the first look at the movie (aside from the artwork that emerged online earlier this week). However, ahead of the studio’s panel this afternoon, Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter revealed in an interview with IGN that The Incredibles 2 takes place “a minute” after the first movie:

“It starts right as the first one finishes, so it just carries on. It starts with the Underminer and a big old set piece. You know that at the end of the first movie when he comes up and you see the family dressed as superheroes, well that’s where [we] start this movie.”

Among the many benefits of working on animated movies is that sequels have the ability to continue stories, with the same cast, over a decade later. The same cannot be said for live-action films, at least not without heavily utilizing CGI to de-age certain characters (and actors/actresses), which is a technique that Disney has been employing increasingly more often with their live-action movies — namely TRON: Legacy and Captain America: Civil War.

In addition to The Incredibles 2, Pixar is expected to discuss this November’s film, Coco, directed by Lee Unkrich and co-directed by Adrian Molina, as well as possibly update fans on Toy Story 4, which releases in 2019 and is being directed by Lasseter and co-directed by Josh Cooley. Aside from those major movies, the acclaimed animation studio has some other projects in the works that they may reveal (or tease). However, since those films aren’t expected until at least 2020 or 2021, Pixar may wait until the next D23 Expo to talk about them.